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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Charlotte Temple, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Temptation and Vice
Regret, Guilt, and Shame
Deceit and Manipulation
Kindness, Compassion, and Forgiveness
Honor, Reputation, and Social Status
Wealth, Poverty, and Happiness
Summary
Analysis
Visiting New York, Montraville decides to check in on Charlotte. He has been unable to forget her and still feels awful about what happened. Belcour simply tells him that Charlotte left him, prompting Montraville to vow that he’ll avenge Charlotte if he finds out that Belcour wronged her. Unable to find her, he happens to walk by her funeral while strolling through the street one evening. He stops someone and asks who they’re burying, and he learns that the dead person was an unfortunate soul who followed a “cruel man” to America only to be abandoned when she was pregnant. As the man continues to describe the dead person, Montraville realizes he’s talking about Charlotte Temple.
Montraville is selfish and unkind, but he still has a conscience, as made evident by his inability to simply forget about Charlotte. Instead of disappearing into his happy new life with Julia Franklin, Montraville has clearly been mulling over how he treated Charlotte. He has thought about it so much, it seems, that he felt the need to check on her, perhaps hoping that she’s happy and well, since then he would be able to stop worrying about how he treated her. To his horror, though, he learns that she’s certainly not happy and well, thus forcing him to truly face the consequences of his selfish behavior.
Themes
Montraville fights his way through the crowd and stops the funeral, saying that Charlotte can’t be buried until he takes revenge on her “murderer.” Mr. Temple tells him to stop holding up the service, revealing himself as Charlotte’s father and demanding to know who Montraville is. Getting on his knees, Montraville reveals his identity and tells Mr. Temple to kill him and, in doing so, save him from “the misery of reflexion.” But Mr. Temple refuses: if Montraville truly is the man who seduced Charlotte, then his guilt will be his God-given punishment, and Mr. Temple will not interfere with that.
When Montraville refers to Charlotte’s “murderer,” he’s talking about Belcour, apparently believing that Belcour is to blame for her death. In a certain way, he might be right, since Belcour did withhold the money Montraville had intended for her, thus forcing her to trek all the way to New York in a snowstorm right before giving birth. And yet, it’s obvious that Montraville himself is to blame for Charlotte’s demise, since he’s the one who lured her away from the safety of Madame Du Pont’s boarding school in the first place. In fact, even Montraville recognizes his own culpability in this scene, as he feels so guilty that he wishes he were dead. If Mr. Temple were to kill him, he thinks, it would even the scales. But Mr. Temple is a virtuous man who would never commit murder—plus, forcing Montraville to live with his mistakes is perhaps the most effective way to punish him.
Themes
Montraville gets up and immediately seeks out Belcour. They fight, but Montraville ends up killing his former friend. Seriously wounded, he goes home to Julia and succumbs to a terrible illness. Because of Julia’s love and care, though, he survives—and yet, he lives the rest of his life battling fits of depression, and he often goes to the graveyard where Charlotte was buried and cries over her grave.
Themes
